This is why I turned vegetarian. Fish, Chickens, Cows, Goats and other creatures are sentient.
Sentience is a lower bar, and even most trees pass it. [0] Sentience, when boiled down, "just about" means capable of responding to pain. Nothing more. Sapience comes with the less easy to define intelligence of an individual.
[0] One of many, many papers in this debated topic: https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1578
- Forced (artificial) insemination - Calf separation (within 24hrs of birth, causes distress to mother too) - Male calf fate (typically sold into veal or beef production, often under low-welfare conditions) - Repeated pregnancy and high milking demands (3–4 pregnancies over ~4 years and are milked 2–3 times daily) - Health problems (mastitis, lameness, metabolic disorders etc) - Physical mutilations (dehorning/disbudding, tail docking and branding are routine) - Early culling (Productive lifespan is ~5 years, yet natural lifespan ~20 years) - Confinement and barren housing - Transportation and slaughter
I live in a farming community but I'm not a farmer. I see comments about mistreatment of cows as if farmers are constantly beating them. Dairy farmers are one of the busiest types of farmers since cows have to be milked twice per day usually 04:00 and 16:00h (4am and 4pm).
Anyone with a business would not be damaging the product or causing it to fail from mistreatment. If a farmer mistreats cows the milk production drops. People comment have no clue about the farms and probably have never set foot on a farm or talked to a farmer.